Aplicación de una herramienta para evaluar el estado de los servicios ecosistémicos en el Pueblo Kichwa de Rukullakta – Archidona - Napo

Abstract

In the province of Napo, the Kichwa People of Rukullakta (PKR) is considered one of the organizations with the greatest legacy and trajectory in the Amazon and even in Ecuador, the leaders of the communities that make up PKR are in constant contact with authorities governments to take part in talks, trainings or information workshops on topics related to the sustainable management of natural resources in their territory and strengthen their capacities (Segarra & Betancourt, 2018). The purpose of the study is to apply a tool for evaluating ecosystem services within the territory, which facilitates the analysis and understanding of the contribution generated by one of its ecosystem services in a fast, economical and scientifically robust manner that benefits the Kichwa People of Rukullakta. By using TESSA, users could incorporate regular monitoring programs, as well as maintain the potentialities that are considered strategic within the environment in which they are developed and take actions for an adequate management of the ecosystem services offered by their agroecological system, guaranteeing their perpetuity in future generations. In addition, the TESSA application, due to its relatively accessible methods, facilitated the evaluation of one of the categories belonging to ecosystem services, obtaining as a result the estimate of the economic cost-benefit value of the main cultivated goods that is generated in a year. The participation of the villagers within the study area was considered important, since the tool recommends the use of existing data when appropriate and thus allows users to collect new field data at a low cost and little effort.